The Prom Games
by novaeverdeen
Summary: AU. It's time to select Prom King and Queen! How will Katniss and her friends deal with all the competition in becoming prom king and queen? Will friendships survive? KatnissxGale. NOW COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

I slung my backpack over my shoulder as I walked into school. I yawned. I hadn't slept well lat night, I was helping prim with homework.

""Katniss!" I turned around to see Rue jogging up to me, a smile on her face.

UI smiled back, "Hey Rue. What's up?"

"We're at school, it sucks," she said, shrugging and then went on, "Did you see Glimmer's posters?"

"Posters?"

"Yeah. You know, for prom king and queen."

oh right. I had forgetten completely about that. Prom king and queen was such a big deal at our high school. The posters and the campaigning and the nominations. Gag. Today was when the nominations were announced, we all voted today and the end of the school aday they announced them.

We walked into school and I immentidely saw the posters. Huge glossy posters of Glimmer posing cutely in different dresses, with "vote for me!" under them in glitter. It's absurd.

"Is she kidding?" I mumbled to Rue, who chuckled.

Rue was campaginging too, but her posters weren't so silly and stupid.

"I'm never gonna get nominated."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Rue. Enough votes will get you nominated, then you just have to campaign...again."

Rue laughed and we went off to our classes.

At english class, Cato was doing some last minute campaigning for prom king by passing out cupcakes.

"No thanks." I said and he scowled at me and walked by.

Peeta passed on the cupcakes too and looked over at me, raising an eyebrow. I had to laugh. Peeta was the best baker I knew. Cato's cupcakes were probably dirt compared to peeta's.

During lunch, the campainging did not stop. Clove passed out cookies, which rue and I tossed out because peeta was sharing cheesebuns with us. Gale sat next to us and made a face.

"I can't wait till this is over." he mumbled, digging into the disgusting school lunch.

I nodded in agreement, taking a bite out of the bun, "Tell me about it. It sucks. If I have to see another cookie or cupcake or whatever, i'm going to gag."

Rue laughed, "I liked giving out my flowers though."

I smiled, "Yeah, that was different at least Rue."

I looked over at Gale and peeta, "You sure you guys didn't want to run?"

"No." they said in unison.

"I don't know, you guys are pretty popular, you could get in on popularity alone."

"I sure hope not." Gale hissed, chucking Clove's cookie behind him.

I could see Marvel hitting on a bumch of girls, trying to impress them into votes. Could this get any worse?

The middle of the day we all voted. I voted for Rue and just for fun I put peeta down for king. Why not? Marvel and Cato annoyed me and I didn't know Thresh enough to vote for him.

At the end of the day, Effie Trinket, our prinicpal, came over the speaker in the classrooms.

"hello students!" she said, "I'm here to announce our nominates for the prom king and queen race. After much campaigning from hard working students, here are the nominates." I sighed. Whatever. "For the boys, Marvel, Cato, Thresh and Peeta." oh my god, peeta?! For the girls, Glimmer, Clove, Rue and Katniss."

I froze. Wait, WHAT?!


	2. Chapter 2

This ws so embbarassing! I didn't even want to be nominated, and I certainly didn't want to campaign. Dressing up and pretending to be all happy and dainty was not my thing. I'd rather sit at home and be gross and eat cheesebuns. Pictureing myself in ad ress made me wanna gag. "There must be some kind of mistake." I confronted Effie, wanting to wipe off that dumb makeup she always wears. Who even dresses like that anymore? What is this, 2003? "There's no mistake, Katniss dear. Your name is on the ballot." She waved it in front of my face and i jerked it from her hand, fuming. But she was right, there was my name and Peeita's in boold and clear writing. The rest of the day was not easy. If Clove or Cato wasn't teasing me Rue was gushing about how nice we would look in our dresses. I just wanted to go home and put an arrow through my heart. "It'll be great Kitty, you'll see!" Rue exclaimed as the final bell rung. "Besides, what if you and Peeta are voted as king and queen? That'll make you happy, right?" I shrugged. I guess I sort of liked Peeta. And he would make a good King. "We'll just have to see." I said simply. 


	3. Chapter 3

Rue acted as though she her nomination didn't even exist, she was so thrilled about me competing with her.

"We're against each other, Rue. Realistically speaking, I am your enemy" I said in a joking tone at lunch the next day.

She rolled her eyes, "Forget it, katniss. It's gonna be so fun! Campaigning starts tomorrow, what are you gonna do?"

"Nothing. I don't even know how I got on the ballot. It has to be a joke."

"Oh come off it," said a nasty voice behind me, and I turned around to see Glimmer, "It wasn't a joke, you really think you're going to win. You aren't." and she stormed off.

Like I thought I was going to win. Whatever, Glimmer.

"This sucks, how did I get nominated?" peeta sai sadly.

"You're sweet, peeta! You're nice to everyone!" rue said.

I didn't want to say I had voted for peeta too. Oops. I didn't think he'd be nominated. Gale seemed sullen.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked him, poking around my salad.

"I thought you weren't interested in this stuff, catnip."

"Gale, I didn't een campaign how is this my fault?"

He shrugged, "I'm just saying, it's weird you ended up on the ballot."

I couldn't believe Gale was annoyed with me. What is that about? Like I really wanted to be prom queen. I wasn't even planning on going to prom.

"It is weird, Gale" I snapped, "But not my problem."

"Stop guys. I ended up on the ballot too, Gale and I had no interest in it." peeta said, almost tired.

"Whatever." Gale said and got up and left.

"What is his problem?" I said.

Rue grabbed my arm, "Who cares, katniss. If you win, you might be prom queen with Cato, he's so dreamy."

"Rue, I don't want to win. Worry about your own campaign okay? I'm not campainging."

Rue pouted, "But it'd be so fun to plan together."

I suddenly wasn't hungry anymore, all I could think about how Gale was angry with me.

"I don't know, Rue."

I left.

Glimmer and Clove kept giving me dirty looks in the hallways, hissing remarks to me about how I was going to lose.

"Just ignore them." Peeta told me.

"She's not even a threat," Clove said loudly, "it's a joke she is even running."

I turned around, annoyed at everything, "Clove, shut up. You have no idea what you're talking about."

She looked smug, "oh really katniss?"

"yes!" I felt fired up, "I'll show you. Both of you. Ill beat both of you and become prom queen."

Glimmer started to laugh, "you're joking katniss, let it go."

The anger in me fired up more and I spat out, "I'll show you."

I stormed off and went over to Rue's locker, who was chatting up Thresh excitely about the campaign.

"Rue." I said, and Rue looked up at me, "I want you to help me campaign."

Her eyes went wide, "Really?"

"Yeah," I looked over at clove and glimmer, and then backat her, "Either you or I are going to win. We're going to show clove and glimmer up."

Thresh laughed, "I'd love to see that. I can't stand those two."

I gave him a small smile, "Thanks."

I would show all of them. If I was nominated someone wanted me in, right? I had a shot at winning this.


	4. Chapter 4

More than ever I wanted to show Clove and gimmer that I could win. I would beat them and laugh when they cried. I would laugh at their pain and make sure they saw me laughing. I am gonna laugh so hard.

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Since Rue was so intent on helping me I figured that helping her wouldn't be too much to ask for. We spent a few days making posters with glitter and cool slogans like "VOTE FOR KATNIP! SHE CAN DO ARCHERY AND STUFF" and drew some rainbows and cupcakes on them. You know, cute stuff. I thought it would be inappropriate to include the fact that Rue doesn't do so well with knives on her poster. Let's keep it family friendly.

On Friday Peeta helped me bake cookies with arrows and bows on them so I could pass them out to sway voters. "Vote for Katniss! She's really cool." I said that about ten times that day, but what do you expect? I am pretty cool.

At the end of the day I finally saw Gale, who had been ignoring me until now. He looked guilty. "Sorry for avoiding you. I'm a jerk." He was certainly right about that.

"It's cool. So what's up?" I asked, handing out the last cookie. I hope they would be enough to let me win.

"I was wondering if...maybe...oh, i dotn know..." He hestitated.

"Do you wanna go to prom with me, Kittynap?" He smiled.

I felt myself blush. "Sure, why not." I replied. "You can help me win queen!"


	5. Chapter 5

Gale frowned at me, "I don't want to help you win queen, katniss."

"Oh..." I thought he was over this? Hadn't he just apologized?

"I wanted to just go with you. Together as one. Not to help you win. I can't believe you care about this, katniss."

"Why do you care, Gale?"

"I just didn't think you were like that."

"Like what?" I snapped, "Not your perfect image? I'm not here to amuse you. I don't want to go to prom with you."

"Fine." he said, "forget I even asked."

"i will." I snapped and I stormed off away from him.

Who did he think he was? What was his problem? He didn't think I was like that? Like what? I was nothing like glimmer or clove, how dare he?

I stormed down the hallway, passing Madge, who smiled and told me she was voting for me.

"Thanks" I said, forcing a smile and walking on.

I saw rue over by her locker and walked over to her.

"Hey Rue." she turned and looked at me, but her normal happy smile wasn't there yet.

"Hey."

"What's up?"

"Really, Katniss?" she said to me.

"What?"

"Don't play stupid."

"What are you talking about?"

She shoved a flyer towards me. I looked down at it and it showed a terrible photo of rue doodling cato's name in her notebook with the words, "Really, you want this child from prom queen? Vote for Katniss."

Rue stormed by me and I turned around, "Rue! I didn't put this flyer together!"

"Who else would have a picture, katniss? That was taken in math class and you sit behind me in it." she snapped. I hadn't ever seen her angry.

She stormed off down the hall leaving me with the flyer in my hand. I looked at it again. This had to have been glimmer or clove. I would never have done anything to hurt rue.

That night I couldn't even muster any energy in making posters. Not without rue. Gale wasn't talking to me either. How did this happen?

"Hang in there, katniss," peeta said while we talked o the phone, "i know yo wouldn't put that flyer up of rue."

"But she doesn't believe me. How can she not believe me?"

"just give her time to cool down."

"i hate this entire prom thing. I really do. Gale isn't talking to me either."

"it'll get better."

"you're not even campaigning peeta. I should have just listened to my heart and not gotten so mad."

"it's okay, katniss."

but I idn't feel any better when I put the phoe down.

I texted rue PLS LET ME TALK TO YOU. It said. No reply. I sighed and flopped into bed. Prim poked her head in.

"You okay?"

"I'm okay little duck." I said, forcing a smile at her, "do you need any help with homework?"

"no im okay, katniss." she left me alone with my thoughts.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day Rue still hadn't texted me back. I dreaded going to school, especially math classs. This sucked. My friends weren't talking to me, I still had to campaign, and I all really wanted to do was go to sleep and never wake up. I had pretty much failed already.

"Rue!" I called, rushing to catch up with her as she went into class. "Really, I didn't do that flyer- I had nothign to do with it!" I said urgently. She ignored me and sat near the back of the room instead of her usual seat. I sighed, frustrated, and sat down. I sighed again. And again. This sucks.

"How did Rue like the flyer?" Clove asked slyly, Glimmer trailing her heels like a lovesick puppy. Gross.

"I wouldn't know, considering I didn't make it." I snarled. "But I have a feeling I know who idd." I pulled Clove's binder out of her hands and watched with satisfication as glue and glitter fell out-the same kind that was on the Kato fyler. Or it looked like the glue from that one. "Mystery solved." I smiled. "I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you darn kids!" Cluve yelled and pushed Glimmer to the side.

"Nobody even likes you, Clove. YOu're gonna die alone with 50 cats and you're not going to have any cat food!" I replied calmly.

"I doubt that." She sneered. "I don't even like cats!"

Rue apologized and sat in her usual seat then. "Sorry, Kittynaps." She mumbled. "It's cool. All that pet dander went to her head."

Now all I have to do is make Gale want to tlak to me and life will go back to normal.

Except for that whole prom thing.

Whoosp.


	7. Chapter 7

There was only a few days left of campaigning before prom came. I had no date, gale still wasn't speaking to me, and clove just annoyed me in general. Even though I proved that I hadn't done the flyer, everyne else thought rue was a lovesick puppy for Cato and her popularity for the title of prom queen plummetted. I felt awful.

"You have to win." rue told me over lunch, "win for me, katniss, you can! It isn't your fault, you didn't do the flyer."

"Yeah but it totally ruined your chances, rue." I said.

Rue shook her head, "it's okay, katniss. Don't even worry about it. I wouldn't have won anyway." and she shrugged, content with eating her fruit sailad. I hated that she thought this way.

I knew I had to win now, to beat glimmer and clove, because they drove me absolutely crazy. I couldn't stand their snarky looks and attitude like they were so much better than everyone else. I didn't care who won prom king, but that title of queen was mine.

After school, I saw gale about to get into his car and I jogged up t o him. It felt weird not talking to him. We had been friends for so long, ever since I could remember.

"Gale." I said and he looeked up.

"Hey." he said stiffly.

"Listen, we need to talk oaky?"

"About what, katniss?"

He wasn't even calling me Catnip. Ouch.

"There's no...there's no communication here." that sounded so stupid, I sighed in frustration, "i mean, I still am not quite sure what is going on. With us."

"Do you want there to be an us katniss?" he asked suddenly.

I was so not ready for this conversation, I ignored the question, "I just wanted to know if you wanted to go to prom...with me, no helping me win the title at all. Just my date."

"I just never saw you care about something so stupid before."

"Why are you so stubborn?" I snapped, "I'm trying to – to give you an olvife branch here and instead all you do is get on my case. I want to win to show Clove and Glimmer they aren't bettter than me."

"That's not the Katniss I know. The katniss I know wouldn't care. This stuff wouldn't matter. You would know deep down you're better than them. They're just bullies, katniss. You don't need to fall to their level."

"What do you want me to do?" I said.

He shruffed, "Just don't campaign anymore. It doesn't really matter, does it?"

I shrugged my shoulders, a sense of dread filling me, "This," I said, waving my hands at us, "isn't going to work, Gale. You obviously just don't get it. You don't get it at all. And i'm not bowing to your wishes."

I stormed off away from him, leaving him from the car. Why were my eyes filling with tears? Why was I so upset? Did I think gale and I had something? For a long time he was just a friend to me, but lately...but no, it just wouldn't. He couldn't be so controlling and think i'd be okay with it because I wouldn't be. I just wouldn't be.

Rue texted me that night. YOU GOING TO PROM W/ GALE?

I texted back NO HE'S A JERK.

Rue replied I'M SRY HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND.

So was I, I thought, as I shut my phone and tossed it on my bed. I looked over at a stack of flyers I had made to pass out tomorrow. I thought about gale. I suddenly snapped up my phone and texted him.

DO U THINK I'M GOING 2 LOSE? I typed.

The phone buzzed a minute later.

I JUST DON'T WANT TO C YOU GET HURT. It said.

So Gale thought I was going to lose. Now I had to win for sure.


	8. Chapter 8

That night Rue and I went over our plans, made sure our dresses were perfect and daydreamed about what it would be like if I really did win prom queen. Everyone cheering me on, wearing a crown, feeling like the prettiest girl in the world...I only wish Gale wasn't upste with me.

If I was being honest with myself I really wanted to dance with him...

When prom night finally arrived I got ready early, smiling to myself. My hair was up and my dress was beautiful-my mother had stopped drinking for a few seconds to help me pick it out. The school was decorated with palm trees and pineapples. Some kind of weird California theme. We weren't even near California.

I gasped a bit when I saw Gale, leaning against a pole in a suit. He actually looked nice.

"Are you still angry with me?" I asked gently, pokigin him on the shoulder.

"I can't be mad when you look so beautiful." He whispered.

"I know, right? I'm gorgeous."

Then we kiseed.

It was nice.


	9. Chapter 9

Gale and I walked into prom together, holding hands. He made me feel beautiful. I saw all my friends together at prom, looking gorgeous as well. Rue looked so pretty in a pale off colour white dress and I smieled at her.

"you look so pretty" I said, hugging her.

"you look gorgeous katniss! Like you're on fire1" rue said smiling.

We drank punch, gale and I slow danced and I forgot about the acampaging all togethr while I had so much fun with my friends. Clove and glimmer's nasty remark couldnt even get me down. Feeling gale's hands in mine felt perfect. We belonged like this.

"I'm sorry, catnipp" he said to me. "you were right. I shouldn't have been telling you it was wrong and that you shouldn't have been trying. I was being a jerk and what you do...is what you do, it's your spirit I love."

"Love?" I said, stumbling over the word.

Gale turned bright red and was going to talk when Effie started to speak.

"Excuse me, students, I just need to interuppt for a moment to announce the winners of prom queen and king."

I felt myself grabbing gale's hand. At this point, I wanted to win just so clove and glimmer didn't. And as for the guys, I didn't care who won, though peeta deserved it. Rue cast a nerous glance over at me.

"For the boys, the winner is...Cato!"

Cato swagged up to the stage in a blue tuxedo, looking full of himself as usual. He took the crown and winked at the girls who were cheering for him. Marvel looked angry and thresh just shrugged, winking at rue. Oooh what was that about, I thought.

"And for the girls..."

my stomach swooped. Please either rue or I. Please.

"Katniss!" Effie said.

"Oh my god." I mumbled, totally shell shocked.

Gale hugged me and kissed my forehead and gave me alittle push towards th e stage. Glimmer and Clove looked like they swallowed poo. Take that. Maybe if they hadn't been so mean to anyone they would have won.

I walked onto the stage in my nice high heels and was handed the crown from Effie which I put on. I looked out at the crowd, wondering how in the world I got so many votes and how I had actually won. The campagingi must have worked. I smiled down at everyone as Cato hooted and hollared.

After we got off down the stage, I smiled sweetly at clove and glimmer, who looked pale and ghastly. Gale swooped me in his arms, "Congrats, catnip."

"Thanks, Gale."

My friends surrounded me and congraulted me on my win. I felt happy and content.

The rest of the night I spent in gale's arms, dancing with him with the prom queen crown upon my head. Life finally felt perfect. I had shown up clove and glimmer and had won prom queen and have gale in my life, ontop of amazing friends. What could be more perfect?


End file.
